Sunday, 28 July 2013

OK folks, no guesses for what we spent the week doing. Getting this show on the road. As did our beautiful Kate by the way - due to our English heritage birthing family The Heaths there is really no way HH cannot be a royalist now is there?

Our superstar tea cosy spent the week channelling the royal Baby George (and of course enhanced her uniform with baby blue especially for this celebration!)

But there was not a lot of time to celebrate the Royal Baby really, as there was just so much happening at the Green Lady.

And let's not beat around the bush - demolition was the fashion of the week - even HH Favourite Schoolmate and her husband had to don the hard hats to walk around. Things have got serious people!

But not serious enough for me to be satisfied until I had a more fashionable hard hat to wear

And don't even think it is not on order - in fact I ordered 2 - one for PA HH and one for me!
Even visiting HH has become a bit more formal!

There are official meetings

Lots of them!

Even PA HH and I have found a new boardroom table alfresco!

actually most of the house is alfresco - even if you are inside!

I am honestly not sure what Architect HH is smiling about - that is my devastated office he is standing in! At least it now has a beautiful city view!

and overlooks all the main rooms of the roofless house!

﻿

Architect HH brought new copies of the revised plans which now proudly take up most of my office wall

But the real action has been the progressive demolition of the Green Lady's roof

Even when we declared "It's a boy" we also declared "yet more demo".. and it went on...

This was what we have been up to over these last few days

And at least 3 skips have been taken away

And we said goodbye to all the old louvres - This was HH then

and just look at it now

And there were some new faces on site

and some old ones (not so old - just that I have seen them many times before!)

But as the roof came down, what was really confronting was how little the house looked without a roof - just walls and the sky - had another mini breakdown when I had been going so well!

To think the ballroom room once looked like this

but no more...

The only hope I had was finding something fabulous under the floorboards which likely have never been touched since 1864

So far nothing I am afraid! A couple of little things but nothing too earth shattering! Just soot, ash.... and more soot and ash!

I thought these closeups of the limestone render were quite beautiful though (trying to find at least a small ray of sunshine amongst all the mess)

But in other less depressing construction news.... the documentary film crew paid a visit to capture the roof tearing down action and looked resplendent in their hard hats

The small part of the garden not trampled on has been flourishing

Do you remember my famous visitors Justeen and Geraint Gregory who visited me a few months ago ? Famous because they had written this beautiful book...

Well they held a beautiful afternoon full of history and stories from the local East Brisbane area last weekend at the Shafston Hotel (which has a history corner if you did not already know!)

I was overwhelmed how many people attended - made some lovely new friends and will share their stories with you on this blog in the future.

And in final (and ground breaking news) ... Tea cosy mania continues to spread throughout Brisbane - loved my visit to the beautiful homeware store Vanilla House at the start of the week

and just look at their stock of superior tea cosies on offer

These pure bread elegant cosy queens would certainly whip Superstar Tea Cosy HH into line in no time at all!

What a beautiful store (Like Vanilla House on Facebook here) or better still pay a visit - you won't regret it! There was no Friday at Four last week (just too busy!) but I will replace a champagne shot with this quote instead.

and let you in on a little secret that my charity group drank their fair share of the beautiful Egly Ouriet champagne during the week (we pretended to have a meeting too!)

And finished a beautiful night off with these precious espresso darlings!

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About Me

This is the story of a unique Brisbane Heritage Home. The 19-bedroom house, constructed in 1864, was purchased in late 2012 in memory of my mother. It was the same story exactly 100 years ago when Mary Weinholt purchased the house in memory of her mother. Honouring her vision, my intention is to return Hanworth to its original glory and once again be part of the Brisbane community. Progress was interrupted on 19 March 2013 when an arsonist set fire to the new renovations, devastating 70% of the home. This is a story from the heart - about the Grand Lady, her caretaker (that is me HH), my family, team, friends, the renovators, supporters, community and the house that will become a home for many more women in the years to come. And of course Superstar Tea Cosy (STC) who has come along for the ride!